


Best Laid Plans

by Andian



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bondage, M/M, Post-Canon, Rough Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 10:55:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8486638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andian/pseuds/Andian
Summary: It was late and he felt lost, as lost as he had felt before he had met her. And even though he didn't know why exactly, he had come to see Stephen.





	

The first thing he noticed when he stepped through the portal was how disheveled Stephen looked. He hadn’t expected it and for a moment he was taken aback by the sight in front of him.

Stephen’s hair was messy; his ridiculous goatee needed a trim and his shirt, half-undone, showed off dark scars on pale skin.

Then Stephen looked up from his book to smile at him and something inside him twisted violently.

“Karl,” Stephen said, abandoning the book –protection circles going by the title – and walking towards him. “It’s good to see you.”

It sounded like he meant it. It still felt like a lie to Karl.

Up close Stephen looked even worse. There were dark shadows under his eyes and the slight tremble in his hands was even more pronounced than usual.

“Having trouble sleeping, Stephen?” Karl asked. He wasn’t quite sure why, he was not here for small-talk.

What exactly he was here for he wasn’t sure either though.

Stephen’s eyes dimmed a bit, as did his smile.

“No, just having to deal with the sanctuary and the fact that not all of the artifacts accept me as the new master.”

It was an obvious lie. Karl would have called him on it before but then everything had been different before and so he ignored it in favor of looking around the room.

It was bigger than Stephen’s small bedroom bag in Kamar-Taj, the furniture old and expensive looking. It felt grand and flashy.

“The building suits you,” Karl said, slowly walking over to Stephen’s desk next to the bed. More books about protection spells. Some of them on a scale too big to be just about the sanctum, Karl realized.

Stephen came up behind him and Karl quickly turned around, suddenly realizing how stupid he had been. He had seen what Stephen could do after all, had seen with what ease he had twisted and distorted the natural law and order of the universe to his own preference _on a mere whim_ …

He stopped himself. It hadn’t been merely on a whim. Stephen had tried to save them, save the world and Karl found himself staring at Stephen chest, oddly naked without the Eye of Agamotto hanging around his neck.

“Why did you come here, Karl?”

His eyes snapped up to Stephen’s face. The man looked at him, not unkindly but clearly unsure.

The odd urge to laugh bubbled up inside of him.

Why did he came here? He had meditated on Everest, had starred into the endless abyss that was one dimension where only darkness existed and then, when all of this had failed, he had gone to the place where the Ancient One had died.

It hadn’t changed anything. He could still feel the anger inside him, the betrayal that had stabbed him sharp and deep in a place he had long thought to be sealed off from anything as trivial as emotions.

And so he had ended up back here, where it all had started. With whom it all had started.  
  
Stephen still looked at him with worried eyes and Karl wanted nothing more than to hit him.

Something of it must have shown in his face, since Stephen took a step back, away from him, and Karl wondered once again what exactly Stephen had done to get Dormammu to leave Earth alone.

Stephen was many things, disrespectful, arrogant, egocentric, but he had never been fearful. He was now though and Karl stepped forward, just to see another flash of badly concealed fear in Stephen’s eyes.

“You should work on that,” he said. For a moment it seemed like Stephen would deny or argue but then his shoulder fell down and he looked away.

“I just need some time,” he mumbled. “Some time and some…”

“Sleep?” Karl suggested. Now he wondered if the night-time study he had interrupted wasn’t just work but rather distraction.

“Was it like this for you?” Stephen asked. “The first time you…” He hesitated, seemingly unsure how to end the sentence.

He had bent the very laws of this universe, had made a mockery of every belief that Karl had hold dear, had taken his world and ripped it apart with one accusation and its following confirmation and then he had denied him even the chance to confront her with it.

“The first time I killed, you mean.”

And he still couldn’t bring himself to say that single word.

“Why? Another thing keeping you awake? Guilt? Is that it?”

Stephen was still not looking at him and the anger inside of Karl returned, always there, never defeated only, briefly, risen above.

“But you found another way, didn’t you? For Kaecilius and his disciples. Endless suffering instead of death.”

Stephen’s head shot up.

“Shouldn’t that make you sleep at night, Stephen?”

A step and suddenly he was standing mere inches away from the other man.

“The fact that you didn’t have to go against your own rules?”  
  
He wanted to hurt him so badly. Not with weapons, not with artifacts. He wanted to cut deeper, hit harder, leave scars that were invisible but so much more permanent.

“Congratulations, Stephen. You won. Your morality is intact. Nobody died,” Karl spat out.

Stephen’s hands were shaking badly.

“But I guess judging by the way you look you know that death would be so much preferable to the hell that you sent them too.”

He wanted Stephen to hurt. He wanted him to hurt like he was hurting.

“So, no. It didn’t feel like that when I first killed. But then I didn’t do what you did…”

The punch hit across the face, unexpected but not unwelcomed, flinging his head to the side. He turned back, giving Stephen a wry smile.

“Feeling better?” he asked.

Stephen had the audacity to look guilty. And the anger inside of Karl roared and reached and before he realized it he had his hands around Stephen’s throat and pushed him violently backwards.

Stephen clearly surprised by the attack was helpless against the sudden push, his legs hitting his bed and him falling down on it.

Karl followed, pressing him down on it, vision blurred with rage.

“Why are you like this?!” he hissed.

“Why did you have to come to us? Why couldn’t you have stayed away, unhappy and broken, and left us alone!”

The grip he had around Stephen’s throat tightened and he could feel Stephen’s chest underneath him, rising heavily as the man desperately tried to suck in air.

“Do you …,” Stephen gasped out. “Want me to … to apologize for finding out the … truth?”

Karl’s hands slipped away.

Stephen gasped for air underneath him, eyes closed, hair messed up and sweaty.

Karl stared at him, transfixed by the red marks starting to form around Stephen’s neck.

Then Stephen raised his hand and Karl’s instincts kicked in. With one swift move of his hand he called upon his magic, bright yellow wrapping itself around Stephen’s hands, forcing them back down on the bed.

“Don’t move,” he hissed. It didn’t stop Stephen from struggling against the restrains. Naturally it didn’t, as if the man would ever know when it was better to just stop and obey.

Karl let it go on. There was no way Stephen would be able to get out of them. Not without the help of a mighty artifact or the Eye on his side.

This wasn’t Kaecilius. Or Dormammu. This was Stephen and him, and he had trained the man, watched him being training, had…

The kick startled him and for a moment his magic slipped away. With surprising speed Stephen brought his hands up, breaking the spell around his hands.

“Why are you…?!” Stephen blurted out, shaky hands trying to form a spell.

With one swift move Karl cut him off, his magic picking apart Stephen’s feeble attempt.

The bonds wrapped themselves around Stephen’s entire arms this time, pulling them up over Stephen’s head. He took care to immobilize Stephen’s leg too this time around. No need to fall for the same trick twice.

For a moment it seemed like Stephen would start struggling against the restrains again but then he stopped, looking up at Karl instead.

“Is this because I’m the new master in New York?” he asked.

Karl hated the tone of his voice. He sounded understanding. He didn’t need him to understand.

“Shut up,” he said instead.

“It would have been you. If there hadn’t been other positions that would have suited you better,”

“I said, shut up.” He could create a magic muzzle. Get him to shut up. And Karl could…

“We need you here.”  
  
He could do something. If he knew what it was he wanted to do.

“There needs to be a Sorcerer Supreme…”

“Shut. Up.”  
  
All he knew was that he didn’t want to hear this.

“Karl, please…” he started again and Karl wanted him to be quiet, to stop talking about this, to just shut up.

He surged forwards and it wasn’t a kiss but rather a violent bite. He pulled back almost immediately.

Frantically he whipped over his mouth, startled when he felt something wet. Looking down to his hand he saw red on it.

Blood, Karl thought. Stephen’s blood.

The man underneath him, pressed closely against him Karl suddenly realized, silently stared up at him. His lips were red and wet. Not just from the blood, Karl realized.

And then Stephen suddenly let his head fall back, showing his throat to Karl.

“Already done?” he asked. His voice was rough. There was no pity in his voice now. No misguided understanding, no attempt to calm him down.

Karl leant down to kiss him again, not less vicious than the first time. The other man gave back as good as he got, leaning into Karl as much as the restrains allowed. It wasn’t very far and Karl moved away for a moment, their lips barely touching anymore.

There was sound, an angry half cut-off growl coming from Stephen.

“You don’t…” he started and Karl cut him off with another rough kiss, his other hand moving down Stephen’s body.

Stephen groaned into the kiss, pushing his tongue into Karl’s mouth. Karl bit down, enjoying the way the groan turned into whimper.

It turned into a groan again when Karl started rubbing Stephen’s cock through his thin trousers.

Stephen trusted against his hand, barely noticeable with the restraints still holding him place.

It was an appealing sight. Karl hadn’t thought about him before in this way. Hadn’t thought about anybody actually in a long time.

The Ancient One and their mission to protect Earth had been consuming more than just one part of his life.

Something twisted inside of him at the thought and he speed up his movements on Stephen’s cock, swallowing a gasp before letting his mouth wander lower, biting down Stephen’s neck.

He roughly pressed his hand over Stephen’s mouth, muffling any sound, as he felt Stephen shaking under him. Biting down once more Stephen tensed up before he stilled.

Karl stopped his movements, wiping away the wetness on his hands on Stephen’s trouser instead.

Quietly he observed Stephen, whose skin was flushed and whose hair was even more of a mess than before.

He avoided his look. Karl pulled his hand away from his mouth, suddenly desperate to hear Stephen say something.

He was only met with silence.

The maelstrom inside him whirled up again. Why had he come here? Why had his first instinct been to find Stephen and to hurt him.

He suddenly remembered when he had first come to Kamar-Taj. How lost he had felt. How broken and angry.

The Ancient One had helped and it had been all lie, hadn’t it. And  Stephen had been the same, was the same as her, wasn’t he. And did it even matter. Had it even mattered at any time.

The world was an abyss again and he was falling and she hadn’t sent him to Everest, she had sent him to a place of pure darkness and no gravity because she had known fear and she had known him.  
  
And if it all had been a lie, then maybe so had been the person who had come back from that place.

“I would have followed you.”

The silence was broken with soft words.

“I would have served under you.”

The man talking was not the man he had known before.

“I still would.”

It was a man beyond arrogance and self-importance.

“Become the new Sorcerer Supreme.”

Or maybe it was just a man broken to the point where any resemblance to his former personality had been eradicated.

“Stay, Karl.”

With one move the restraints vanished and with another he called upon a portal and stepped inside.

Stephen called after him but Karl didn’t hear what he was saying before the portal closed.

Karl fell to his knee on the other side, breathing in desperately.

The magic around him swirled as if it was trying to soothe him. Always there. Always tempting.

And maybe that had been what happened to her. Maybe it had become too much for her.

Maybe it would too for Stephen.

He looked up into this sky where five suns blocked out any darkness and he suddenly understood.

Maybe this was the only truth. That it was not just the forbidden rituals and the things that came behind the rules that corrupted people.

Maybe it was magic in itself.

And maybe the only way to save the world, to save them, was to destroy those who used it. Because after all nobody could ever defeat their demons. All they could do was rise above them for a moment.

Mordo rose from his knees and for a moment he stared at the spot where the portal had been and he felt a pang of sadness.

When the time came, it would have to be him who stopped Strange from falling to his own demons.

.


End file.
